The invention relates to a gasdynamic CO laser, comprising an excitation region, in which a laser gas is excited, a supersonic nozzle, through which the laser gas flows, a laser-active region penetrated by a resonator beam path and a closed laser gas circuit, in which the laser gas is cyclically conducted.
A gasdynamic CO laser of this type is known from Applied Physics, 22, pages 421-427 (1980).
In this gasdynamic CO laser the supersonic nozzle is designed such that after flowing therethrough the laser gas is present in the laser-active region at a pressure of, for example, 3 mbar.
This means, as also explained in the above-mentioned article, that adequate pumping capacities have to be made available in order to condense the laser gas which is cyclically conducted in the laser gas circuit from very low pressures, for example a final pressure in the diffuser of 10 mbar, to a pressure of 500 mbar and supply this gas to the excitation region again.
Such a high condensation of the laser gas requires large pumping capacities and, therefore, a constructional volume of the pumping system which negatively influences any commercial use of the gasdynamic CO laser to a considerable extent.
The object underlying the invention is therefore to improve a gasdynamic CO laser of the generic type such that this requires smaller pumping capacities and is therefore suitable for commercial uses.